Here in the ISF, we are just a few people, with some common interests and, no doubt, varied backgrounds, experiences, skills, university degrees, and so on. Especially those who have posted in this thread.
Yet if we accept what's in some of the sources ms has provided, at least some academic staff in at least one university physics (?) department provided some sort of endorsement or support for at least some aspect of the core idea (fractional quantum states, say). Though I should add that I didn't thoroughly check this, so I'd appreciate being told where I'm wrong.
The key here is, most people in our society assume that "scientists" are all smart. At least above-average smart, if not genius level smart.
And by and large, scientists don't complain about that perception, because why would they?
But here's the thing: Science is just like like any other job. No one disputes that there are bad plumbers, bad mechanics, bad waiters, bad bartenders, bad bureaucrats, bad accountants, bad lawyers, you name it. And just as with every other job, there are just some bad scientists out there. People clever enough to remember what they need to pass a test, clever enough to follow the instructions in their lab book to get the expected result, but not quite clever enough to quite grasp the essence of science, what it means to
expand on knowledge, rather than just
replicate previous work.
I'm willing to bet everyone who ever went through a college or university science degree could tell you stories of people like that. I know I can.
And yet, those people still often graduate with a degree, and they get jobs. Not the greatest job, but every lab out there needs bottle washers. There's value in being able to follow directions, and carry out an established procedure, if for no other reason than it frees up better scientists to work on better things.
And I suspect Mills looks for people like that: smart enough to follow his instructions and "get the expected results", but not smart enough to question any of the inconsistencies in his narrative. Mills gets his "confirmation", they get a better paying job, and everyone (other than his investors) goes home happy.